“We were pleased and impressed by the overall high quality of the submissions, and have enjoyed our follow-up conversations with our several finalists. Through the submission and our subsequent meetings, Massif demonstrated a true contrarian mindset and the kind of thoughtful, informed analysis we believe to be essential to a disciplined, concentrated approach to value investing.

In conjunction with the award, the family offices of Michael van Biema and Chuck Royce, clients of van Biema Value Partners, will be making an allocation to Massif Capital as of April 1. In addition, van Biema Value Partners will provide operational advice to Massif as it works to grow its emerging business. We look forward to a long and profitable relationship.”

"A private investment partnership focused on finding value in cyclical businesses and underappreciated industries. We invest with caution and confidence, and every decision we make is the result of prudence and calculation. Our goal is good absolute returns, but only after accounting for risk, and prioritizing the preservation of capital. Our partners benefit from in-depth research and industry expertise that facilitates the identification of situations in which the market has mispriced risk or incorrectly discounted future value. Spotting opportunities arising from market inefficiency require we be intelligently contrarian: learning things others don't, seeing things differently than others do and understanding things as they are, not as we want them to be."

In conjunction with this culmination of van Biema’s/Royce’s DD period and subsequent allocation to Massif, we are pleased to announce the immediate scheduling of the 2nd such initiative: the van Biema International Small-Cap Challenge.

At the end of March, SumZero challenges global fund managers with less than $50m in AUM to participate, as well as all pre-launch managers, to submit well-researched, well-reasoned pitches of international small- and micro-cap value opportunities.

Submissions will be judged by a team of allocators including Michael van Biema of van Biema Value Partners, Chuck Royce of the Royce Funds, and a select group of others drawn from SumZero’s Allocator pool. Finalists will be selected to meet with the judges for further vetting for potential investment.

Complete details to be posted shortly. In the interim, please congratulate both van Biema and Massif Capital on the victory in this exciting initiative:

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